chapter 2
Counter-Attack
"Come let us eat some bread and soup" said Stalin after countless glasses of vodka. Oleg was glad, the vodka started to take effect and he sure did not want to pass out in front of the Great Leader.
Stalin clapped his hands. An old woman emerged from a backroom. "Old mother, bring some food for our hero", ordered Stalin. the woman disappeared in the backroom, to return with a tray holding bread and two bowls of soup. The two man enjoyed the simple buttasteful meal for a while, but Stalin wanted to here more stories from Oleg.
"Tell me comrade Oleg, you did not let those fascists get away with their cowardly attack?"
Oleg quickly swallowed his bread, "No Comrade, we certainly did not"
After the attack on their airfield, a single Yak pilot had followed the German fighters. Soon the Yak-pilot returned to the base with the location of the German airfield. It was time to return the favor. So all Yaks were quickly refueled and rearmed, while Cobra fighters were equipped with bombs. War would arrive at the German's doorstep.
Oleg flew his Yak above the enemy airfield as the Cobras swooped down, dropping bombs on hangars, aircraft and fuel tanks. The Germans were completely caught off guard. They wereprobably still refueling their fighters after their return from that mornings attack. Nevertheless some German fighters got into the air and started attacking the Cobras.
Oleg spotted one Cobra who was in trouble. Two Focke-wulfs tailed the Cobra which tried desperately to shake them off.
Oleg came to late to save the Cobra, which crashed near the airfield. But his murderer did not survive long after him. A quick burst from Oleg's 20 mm canon sent the Focke-Wulf spiralling towards the ground with one wing less.
Pulling up from his attack on the Focke-Wulf, Oleg spotted another German desperately trying to take off. The Germans were like sitting ducks, to slow to evade the Soviet fighters. Oleg rolled his Yak onto its back and dove towards the struggling German.
The German pushed the throttle forward, desperately trying to escape his attacker, but he was to low and to slow to evade Oleg.
Again, a short burst of machine-gun fire and a couple of canon shell was all it took to set the German fighter ablaze.
The German pilot tried to crash-land his burning fighter, but to no avail. Touching the snowy ground to fast, the fighter exploded into a cloud of metal and flesh. But Oleg did not bother with the faith of his latest victim. He was already scanning the airfield for more targets.
When he overflew the German airfield, he had spotted some large big birds on the ground. A couple of FW-200 Condors were sitting on the runway. They were a tempting target. So Oleg circled around and prepared to hammer them with some shells.
But the condor crews were not sitting idle. Taxiing on the runway, their gunners fired at the approaching Yak. It was unlikely they would shoot it down, but at least the return fire could offset Oleg's aim.
Dirt kicked up around the condor as the Oleg's shells hit the ground. Some of them even hit the condor's wing, but a Condor was much more sturdier then a Focke-Wulf and the shells did not much damage to the aircraft.
The squadron commander decided that the Germans had been beaten enough. He called his fighters back. Oleg rushed away from the airfield and the two Condors. They had escaped their destruction, for now. German wreckage littered the ground around the airfield as Oleg's Yak rushed homeward.
"That was a nice tale", answered Stalin when Oleg finally went silent.
"We managed to shoot every German fighter that took off, Comrade Stalin" replied oleg.
Stalin smiled, "Come lets go outside, a little walk after such a good meal will do us well".
Oleg quickly stood up and helped Stalin into his coat. Both men went outside, into the cold outdoors of mother Russia. both men walked for several minutes, each engrossed in his own thoughts. Oleg thought he could see the shadows of the guards in the edges of the forest.
Finally Stalin opened the conversation again. "Tell me Comrade Oleg, I have read you were also involved in some special operations?"
Oleg tortured his brain to what mission Stalin might refer, he had flown so many missions. Then he recalled the Spetnaz mission, "Yes, comrade Stalin, do you want to tell me about?".
End of this Chapter
